Market Trends

The Russian Real Estate market suffers from a solid reputation of being one of the least transparent and one of the most corrupt major markets in the world. This is even more remarkable if compared with the three other BRIC economies, which enjoy a much better image from overseas investors. More >

Two of Germany’s open end funds platforms, Aberdeen’s DEGI Europe and Morgan Stanley’s P2-Value, have decided after a two year closing period that they will close the funds and sell all of their buildings.

Most of the investors that have put money into those funds are institutional investors, large funds of funds, and are now under pressure from their investors to pay the money back. Because most of the money is in real estate assets and there is not that much liquidity left in the funds to repay the investors, management has decided to close the funds, collecting fresh money from new investors or selling some buildings to meet the request from investors who want to get out. More >

The World Economic Outlook recently released by the IMF states that the economies in Latin America and the Caribbean will grow by 5.7%; certainly just “a bit” of an increase over the 4.3% estimated at the outset of 2010. The report mentions that the region is growing at a faster pace than expected due to solid macroeconomic policies, consolidated and stable policy support, favorable external financial conditions and strong commodity revenues. An additionally interesting observation is that Mercosur (a trade federation founded in 1991 comprising countries of southern South America – Uruguay, Paraguay, Brazil, and Argentina) has emerged as the GDP growth champion so far this year. All those members are expected to enjoy growth rates exceeding 7%. Argentina and Brazil are estimated to experience rates of 7.5%, Uruguay should have 8.5% and Paraguay (the perennially overlooked southern sibling) is pegged to experience a 9% growth rate. These numbers place the Mercosur countries among the top five in the entire region! And, as you may have surmised, Paraguay may well be the region’s economic growth champion by year end. The strong growth in the region is attributable to strong domestic demand (so much so that some global economists are worried that it will lead to economic overheating in some countries), a powerful and stable increase in investment (mostly domestically derived funds and capital returning to the local markets after being invested overseas for a number of years) and healthy exports driven by Chinese and Asian demand and by the demand derived from the slow but steady recovery of the U.S. economy. More >

Over the past 60 days, NAI Global’s alliance partner for outcry auctions, Higgenbotham Auctioneers, has sold more than 90 properties at auction in Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Texas, Delaware and throughout a number of Midwest states. In addition, they have scores of upcoming auctions scheduled before year end in Florida, Michigan, New Jersey, Illinois, Texas, South Carolina, and Georgia. More >

It is hard to say which single document is the most essential to review when purchasing an income property. However, as the prime source of property revenue, the rent roll is clearly one of the most critical. More >